Nirvana

Christophe(r) Lambert heads an international cast in this 1997 French-Italian(?) co-production. While the movie doesn't have the big budget a Hollywood blockbuster would have had, it still manages to create an interesting & convincing near-future world. Actually, it's one of the few films that really manage to create a decent cyberpunk setting; right now, I can only think of "Nemesis" which was a pretty good effort, and then there's always "Blade Runner", of course...

As for the acting in this movie, it's always tough to rate the level of acting when the movie is dubbed, but all in all I'm not complaining. Lambert is good, and Diego Abatantuono (sp?) is interesting as the sentient game character Solo - and kind of appropriate, too, since he has the physical look of a real-life "Mario on steroids". :-)

There are also several nice touches of humour, that prevent the movie from taking itself too seriously (check out the meditating guy later on in the movie for a nice example...). Finally, there is some nice music in there as well.

All in all, an enjoyable little movie - with cult potential, I think.

An European hard-science action movie is rare these days, especially a good one, and Nirvana was a good surprise when released in France... The critics bashed it - with some interesting exceptions, and the public did not come to see it (bad promo material)... Nevertheless, it's still one of my favorite. This is not a Wakowsky Bros frenzy festival with "bullettime effect" (did you know that it was a french who created them ?) and kick-ass fighting, but Gabriele Salvatores (an "intellectual" director as it seems) did an excellent low-budget film with GREAT scenario, GREAT acting (Lambert at his best, seriously), a credible world...

It's not centered on the VFX, and it's great. Sometimes a bit slow, but it's for the "ambiance", and, what an ending... A must-see, not especially for Lambert-fans... Be open-minded, and try it...

OK, so you've always wondered what the matrix would be like with a good leading actor (rather than the wooden Reeves), a better script, no spectacular action scenes, and low budget. This is your film. We have Chris Lambert in one of his best films (along with "Subway" and of course, "Highlander"), this is not his average film. The goal is to erase the game in which its main character is aware of his condition of "gamething" and is damned to live and die. This Super Mario working for the Mafia (Abatantuono) is terrifically great. Sergio Rubini is great too, and the whole cast in general kicks ass! What to do with low budget? THIS MOVIE!

8/10

I wanted to watch Nirvana as I heard it was made by the same people doing Mediterraneo, which I enjoyed. I watched it in Italian, so bad dubbing was not a real problem for me (even if Christopher Lambert is clearly not speaking Italian). A lot of reviewers compared this to films like Johnny Mnemonic and The Matrix, but that is just inviting disappointment. The best American film match that I know of is Existenz. The same ideas of games becoming too real, intermingling with reality, to the player's downfall.

The film has several things going for it. One is Christophe Lambert, who is always funny in any movie, no matter how bad it is. Another is the very beautiful Stefania Rocca, playing the mysterious Naima. The best thing, in my opinion, is that it is a truly Italian film, rather than a clone after an American movie, a feeling that is enforced by Diego Abatantuono playing the role of Solo in a typical Italian way. Other things, like the scene with the guy killing someone in the corridor because they were making too much noise 'ma che cazzo?!' or the car antitheft device spouting Italian insults are good examples.

The cyberpunk theme is clearly influenced by William Gibson's vision (I mean, what cyberpunk film isn't?), and in a way steals a lot of the elements you see in Johnny Mnemonic, released just two years earlier, but the moral of the story is more metaphysical in nature.

As much as I liked all of these elements in the film, I have to also complain about a lot of others. The low budget feel, the technicolor "virtual world", some of the clicheatic characters, etc. Overall I liked it, though, and I think for its budget, country of origin and ambitions, it was not a failure.

Films generally carry a title for a reason. Salvatores's Nirvana's is the key to understanding it. Without the key, the film will look like rubbish, like many comments here testify. But, if you get that key and use it, it can become one of the most astonishing movie experiences you may make.

The title is not just the name of a videogame. That is totally incidental.

The movie is about the voyage towards Nirvana - the real thing - of two men (or maybe of one man and his own projection in a virtual world): how the two (or maybe the man and his own inner conscience) start to understand what Nirvana is and how they eventually reach it, in spite of all misadventures and (that is not casual at all...) the cycles of deaths and rebirths that the virtual self Solo (meaning alone, in Italian, not Star Wars' character - again not a coincidence) has to go through.

This is a movie about symbolisms. This is a movie about the deepest searches of the soul. Searches that cannot be disturbed by petty concerns (see Bebo Storti's apparently bizarre line after he appears in a flash for just a few seconds to shoot and kill a very unlucky henchman "I am MEDITATING [profanities deleted]!").

Science fiction is incidental to its aims, and provides a fabulously well used tool to unravel the story in what I regard as a cinematic masterpiece.

Blade Runner's climax ended on the recognition that replicants (and humans, maybe) were just "tears... in the rain". Nirvana's is about snowflakes that fall forever, and yet never fall.... Pity this is so far above the expectations of an average moviegoer that most viewers did not even recognize the genius in its simplicity. My congratulations to Cacucci, Corica and Salvatores!